Answered by:

RDP screen goes black after successful remote login

Question

I have a Windows 2008 Server that I have been connecting to once a month remotely to apply OS updates. Often, I reboot that server and it uses auto-logon to login and run an application.

Today, I rebooted the server and when I try to connect with RDP, I get the login prompt and enter my credentials, I see a few expected messages fly by on the host OS (the last one I see is the word Welcome), but then the screen goes black.

The apps on the server are running successfully because our applications can connect to them, we just can't logon to the desktop of the Windows Server 2008.

I made no configuration changes (I NEVER do) other than to apply the latest Windows Server updates.

I would prefer not to drive to the computers location, or try to coordinate a time to have the server hosting company assist me with troubleshooting; but is there anything else I can do? Any ideas about what might cause this?

Answers

Wow, today my RDP screen was still black. So I tried CTRL-ALT-END. Then I hit cancel, then I closed RDP. Then I re-opened RDP and I had my desktop back! YAY!!! I hope this solution works next time.Rob Kraft

I'm sorry, I didn't have an email address assigned after the recent change in the Microsoft message boards so I did not receive notification of this reply.

This problem also occurred logging directly onto the server. So it was not an RDP problem. When we logged on at the physical server, the screen went black after the welcome message displayed. However, the mouse cursor was still visible
and functional. We had no option at that point except to perform a hard reboot. When the server rebooted, everything worked normally.

I have the same problem. My system is windows server2008 enterprise without hyper-v, run as a guest OS on top of HYPER-V, I send ctrl+alt+del get to login screen, after I login as administrator, I get black screen except the mouse point on the screen, I
can login as other account get normal screen, only administrator's account has this problem. After I rebooted the guest OS, problem dissappeared, I can login as administrator and get normal screen by using RDP. But after a two weeks today
this problem is coming back again. There is no change to the system, don't know what is cauing the problem and how to prevent?

Wow, today my RDP screen was still black. So I tried CTRL-ALT-END. Then I hit cancel, then I closed RDP. Then I re-opened RDP and I had my desktop back! YAY!!! I hope this solution works next time.Rob Kraft

I have a desktop running XP 64 bit and had the same problem. I hit CTRL-ALT-HOME and got the Start Menu and task bar. Right clicked on the task bar and picked show desktop. The desktop appeared and it functioned normally after that. I have to go through
this sequence every time I RDP now.

I am having the same issue - only CTRL-ALT-END doesn't do anything for me. CTRL-ALT-DEL only lets me open task manager on my client computer, not in the remote session - this is even when choosing the "Apply Windows key combinations" to be "On the remote
computer".

I'm running Windows 7, with dual screen (I've tried telling it to use only one monitor) - but I seem to be ok to remote in using my wifes username and password. It is only my own.

When I press buttons (such as CTRL ALT DEL/END) I can hear a sound like the "Default Beep" sound in windows.

Tried a lot of things. I do feel like it sits on the "Welcome" message for far longer than it normally does.

As per another thread I found on the same issue, I tried connecting with a smaller resolution to reset the bitmap cache (as per support.microsoft.com/kb/555840).

In the same thread someone posted they had the problem occur because they left a game on their client computer in full-screen mode. I had a game open, tried closing that but no luck.

I notice I have some updates pending install, will try installing those and restarting.

*Update: Restart didn't work. Update was only a security update for Silverlight. Am now updating graphics drivers but I doubt this will work because as mentioned above I can log in fine using my wifes username/password. I may need to remote in with hers
and restart the server.

Well I had this problem now a couple of times in the last week or two.

Nothing specific running on the 2008 R2 server, I just disconnected and reconnected a couple of minutes later and I saw login was successful but then I got the black screen. Always had to restart the server remotely via shutdown /m \\server /r command.

Just found this topic here with the CTRL+ALT+END trick and will it try next time but I also use an Android RDP client which does not support such keyscombination.

I guess that this bug was caused by the patchday before the last one because it happened the first time for me two weeks ago and never had such a problem - also didnt change anything in the system or on the hardware.

Same problem with a new installation of SBS 2011 (based on SRV 2008/R2) with every client I try to connect.

The problem is not specifiable in detail. 70% of time, the logon works normal.

I found another solution that works in our case:
Each time when we were inactive, the screensaver came after 10 minutes -> one keystroke or a mouse movement, and after the password input the desktop was here.
It works also, when we set the screensaver to reactivation without password. So we set the timeout to one minute and no password for reactivation.

Is it just me, or is the 'solution' not just a work around? It seems to me that there is a problem that has no solution. Thanks though for the work around, it does the trick but leaves the bug/error/problem as it is; a nuisance...

Hope that MS has a real solution or maybe it is in an update. the hardware that I connect to is an HP ProBook 6570b Windows 7 Pro latest updates by MS in place.

I am having the same issue - only CTRL-ALT-END doesn't do anything for me. I tried full screen as well in 2 different client but just I can see the black screen . the server is the SBS 2011 and RDP clients are windows 7 .

I had the same issue this morning. Could not rdp to server. I figured my profile was corrupt. Got my co-worker to login to the server with another profile and delete my session in task manager. That worked for me.

I'm going to venture a guess and say that Windows has a bug in the way it deactivates screensavers. I run a screen saver called "electric sheep" and I've noticed that sometimes with Windows 7, when I return to my computer, the screen saver's icon
remains in the taskbar like it's still running -- this is not normal behavior for the screen saver at all, FYI. It even locked up my entire desktop at one point, and when I finally ended the screen saver's process, everything sprang back to life on the
desktop. Pressing CTRL-ALT-END got rid of the black screen and brought up the CTRL-ALT-DEL screen as expected, and then pressing cancel returned me to my desktop. There is clearly a bug somewhere.

Found the (permanent) solution (for me) after 3 hours: Add the "Authenticated Users" and "Interactive Logon" to the local "Users" group and reboot. If the machine is a DC, do the same in the builtin\users Group - aaaand the screen is back wihtout black.
Fixed all my Black-Logon-Machiens instantly.

The bug sits somewhere between the twintoken acquirement and the uac-prompt; the interactive logon is able to take the twintoken but cannot display the uac-warning that it is doing so. Twintoken ... what a faceplam-idea. If I got $1 for every uac/twintoken/runas/runasfoo
problem I've seen, I would buy the windows division. Twice.

I am also getting a blank black screen after successful login to the rdc.

Whereas,other users are properly able to connect to it.Only my screen blacks out.Whereas,till sometime back I was able to connect to it and the screen didn't go black.But,after sometime when I again logged in to the rdc this issue came up.Can someone please
help?

KB970879 was not helpful. The local Users group already had the Interactive and Authenticated Users account, and the problem still occurs. The problem seemed to start happening after installing Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 on my Windows
7 system.

Previously, when this problem occurred with Office 2003, I simply installed KB2661332 and the problem went away, but that hotfix doesn't seem to work with this version.

When I try to RDP connect from away location, i get prompted for my credentials and after successful login i sometimes see remote interface for some short time and in majority of times i get BLACK screen immediately.

I tried updates and hotfixses suggested on forums online but nothing worked for me.

Also CTRL+ALT+END does nothing for me.

Only solution for the moment is this VPN bypass. No preoblems when i connect to VPN first and than rdp to 192.168.100.2 which is lan IP of my server.

I have found a temporary (band-aide) fix for the issue. If I log in via standard RPD session (start > mstsc) and I receive the black screen I switch to RDP admin session (start > mstsc /admin) and the screen comes up. If I had most recently
used RDP admin session I switch back to standard RDP session and the screen comes up. Still very annoying since I have to switch back and forth between the two session types. Hope this helps those who the ctrl + alt + end command doesn't
work for.

I am also experimenting with disabling bitmap caching on the client connection by opening the RDP connection with notepad and adding the following below value. I haven't verified that this works 100% of the time.

2. If I change from full window to none-full, I'm getting "previous bitmap" screen, not actual, so Ctrl-Alt-End is the only way to resolve - again.

3. Issue observed on hi-end video cards (both ATI and NVidia) with latest drivers on host (PC with session on, not client), with Intel GMA everything is ok. So I suppose there are problems with bitmap caching (turning it off on client doesn't help).

Update on November 18, 2013: We received feedback from some of you that with the RDP 8.1 update package installed, some users are unable to use their redirected smart cards in remote sessions. We have temporarily removed
the update package from Windows Update and the Download Center while we investigate the problem and update the package with a fix if necessary. We’ll post an update on this blog as soon as we have a timeline for republishing the update package.

Am having the same problem also with my VDI deployment. After logging in through the gateway when I get redirected to my VM it'll give me a black screen. If I sit and wait about 90 seconds it eventually comes up. That part that bothers
me is that it wasn't doing this when I first set it up.

Does this sound like the same issue or something unrelated with similar symptoms?

Note The following instructions are applicable only to remote computers that are running Windows 7 SP1. 1.Install the appropriate version of the update package by running the Windows6.1-KB2592687 update file.
2.Restart the computer.
3.Open the Local Group Policy Editor. gpedit.msc
4. Enable the Remote Desktop Protocol policy. The setting for this policy is under the following node:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment

5. If the UDP functionality is required, enable the RDP Transport policy, and then set the value to Use both TCP and UDP. The setting for
the RDP Transport policy is under the following node:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Connections
Note Configuring the RDP Transport policy also lets the firewall allow UDP port 3389.
6.Restart the computer.

hope this helps for those who just installed ALL updates from windows update site... :)

I just had an RDP session that worked fine when I was in the office, but was black when I got home. Closing the connection and reconnecting didn't help. Sometimes when I tried to connect, I would get disconnected with a protocol error.

I was able to connect to other existing sessions on the machine, and start new sessions as new users (I have access to 4 different accounts on that machine between domain and local), but that one session would stay black no matter what I did. Now I'm
in the office, so I logged on via the console, and got the same thing. I tried Ctrl+Alt+End, and it displayed the screen via RDP but not via the console, cancelling didn't help.

Finally, I connected as a local admin, and killed dwm.exe and explorer.exe for that session. I then reconnected, and the screen came back. I also found that there was a "Restart Now" dialog from Windows Update open on the desktop. The session
was as a non-admin, and UAC is enabled on the machine, so maybe there was a bad interaction with a UAC dialog and RDP while the connection was inactive.

i was facing the same issue, after login to my remote Server (Windows Server 2003) I was getting a black screen and no other screens are visible. After applying the given settings as in above figure 2 i.e. Experience tab, I got my Desktop visible.

My case is, on Windows Server 2012 R2, after installing FileZilla Server, MyPC Backup and WSE_Vosteran was brought in as unwanted, black screen appeared when remote connected to it. By using Ctrl_Alt_End,
I was able to terminate the running processes one-by-one, when it came to "Run Once Wrapper", boom, the remote desktop was shown. After removing those unwanted, reboot, "Run One Wrapper" disappeared from Task Manager, and remote connection
was back on working charmingly!

I recently used your answer to solve the same issue. I believe the cause is 'explorer.exe' failing / dying, as i was able to CTRL + ALT + END, run Task Manager and then run Explorer. Hope this helps in the future

UAC. UAC is the problem. That bullshit, yes. In my case the first login was successful and working, but any other consecutive attempt was not working. I was getting either a flickering(unusable) or completely black screen, on RDP or directly on the console
of the 2012 R2 server. In the Application eventlogs there were lots of errors with eventID 1000(Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 6.3.9600.17415, time stamp: 0x54503a3a
Faulting module name: unknown).
UAC was disabled. I just enabled it, reboot the server, and then I was able to log in with multiple working sessions. I even disabled back UAC and reboot the server again and things were working normally. Beware of UAC :)

Posting this in case you have spent countless hours such as myself exhausting every search engine answer on fixing the black screen stuck at a remote desktop connection to Windows 10 Pro (but applicable
to any other operating system such as Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008, or Windows 7

Ensure you have all security operations disabled. At this point, I am sure you have tried disabling your router firewall, windows firewall, software anti-virus, etc. It turned out I had device installation
restrictions enabled. In the group policy editor (start -> run -> gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> ensure you DISABLE all the "Prevent installation of devices")
or anything else you may have previously enabled to lockdown your work environment. Upon disabling these system security settings, I was able to complete a remote desktop connection and it apparently installed the necessary drivers/devices so I could then
re-enable these settings and resume having my machine locked down with future remote desktop connections working flawless.

I logged in to a black screen this morning on Windows Server 2012 and was able to recover by changing the display resolution on RDP settings to less than full screen. Logged back out, changed resolution back to full screen and all is good now.

Same issue here. Opted for your CTRL-ALT-END recommendation and was given the option to Log Off, Shut Down, or Launch Task Manager. Opted for Log Off as a quick test and that ultimately solved the issue. My suspicion is that the connection had been open
and closed, but never actually logged off, so when updates were running on the server, it compromised that connection in some way. Once I logged off and it completed its updates to the user profile, etc, I was able to log in with success.

Microsoft is conducting an online survey to understand your opinion of the Technet Web site. If you choose to participate, the online survey will be presented to you when you leave the Technet Web site.